More nForce2: New Boards from Abit, Biostar and MSI

Test Setup

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Basic Hardware
Processor AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25 GHz)
RAM 2x 256 MB PC3500 CL2, Corsair Micro
Hard Drive IBM DeskStar 60GXP, IC35040, 40 GB, 7.200 rpm, NTFS
Graphics Card Asus V8460, GeForce 4 TI4600, 128 MB
Other Hardware
Network Card 3COM 3C905-TX
Drivers & Settings
Graphics Driver Detonator 4 Series Version 30.82
Chipset Driver nVIDIA driver 1.13
DirectX Version 8.1
Screen Resolution 1024x768x16, 85 HzSPECviewperf : 1280x1024x32, 85 Hz
OS Windows 2000 Professional SP3
Benchmarks
Quake III Arena Retail Version 1.16command line = +set cd_nocd 1 +set s_initsound 0Graphics detail set to ’Normal’Benchmark using ’Q3DEMO1’
Unreal Tournament 2003 Official Demo
Comanche 4 Official Demo
WinACE 2.20, best compression, Dictionary 4096 kB
SPECviewperf Version 7.0, all tests
mpeg4 encoding Xmpeg 4.5DivX 5.02 Pro (YV12)Compression/quality : HighestData Rate : 780 kBitFormat : 720x576 Pixel@25 fps150 MB VOB file, no Audio
Sysmark 2002 Internet Content Creation
Lame MP3 Lame 3.91 MMX, SSE, SSE2, 3DNow !
PCMark 2002 Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
3DMark 2001SE Default Resolution : 1024x768x32

In order to compare the nForce2 boards’ performance to that of the KT400, we took the fastest KT400 motherboard currently available, an Asus A7V8X. You will find its benchmark results in each chart.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.